| Description |
Karaoke in Japan is all too often overlooked as simply being a leisure activity. Even the scholarly work that has looked at karaoke in various terms has usually been limited to topics such as communication, social class and individualism versus collectivism. A structural-functionalist approach is utilized in analyzing the karaoke box in terms of the social function that the box provides, and is complemented by the use of the theories of socialization and dramaturgy. Though the karaoke box is emphasized, different karaoke spaces are also examined in terms of the age and sex of frequenters. The result is that the karaoke box aids in the transition from youth to adulthood in various ways, which is a large part of the social function that the karaoke box provides in Japanese society. This and other social functions of the karaoke box is demonstrated through academic research, participant observation and casual interviews. |
